Monday, April 04, 2016

Yes, Japan, you must defend yourself

Donald Trump is kicking it on foreign policy. Ban Muslim immigration until we get a handle on terrorism. Build the wall. Re-think NATO (the USSR died 25 years ago). And now, he wants Japan to defend itself.

We are $19 trillion in debt. America cannot do it alone in defending the free world.From Fox News:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled-down Sunday night on his comments that the US should “do a better deal” with Japan, South Korea and other allies, saying they should pay more for America’s protection while taking a greater role in their defense — including building their own nuclear weapons.

Responding to questions at a Fox News Channel “On the Record” town hall two days before the Wisconsin primary — where polls show he trails Ted Cruz — Trump also said that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour wasn’t good for business or jobs creation.

And there is this:

Trump held firm on his position that NATO has become obsolete.

He said the international peacekeeping force doesn’t focus enough on stopping terrorism and that the United States pays too much for what it gets in return.

“It's obsolete,” Trump said. “We're not getting the benefits that we should be getting for the money. We're carrying a lot of countries. … What I said was exactly right. … I think NATO has to be readjusted.”

Trump also stuck by his suggestion that it’s perhaps time for the U.S. to stop paying most of the bill to defend Japan and South Korea against nuclear-armed North Korea, even if that means touching off a nuclear arms race in the Korean peninsula.

“You have Pakistan and you have North Korea. And you have China. And you have Russia. And you have India. And you have the United States and many other countries have nukes,” Trump said. “You already have a nuclear arms race.”

7 comments:

I tend to agree, but I don't like the idea of depending on allied military forces. (Read "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli.) We have had to extricate them on a semi-regular basis. While we shouldn't do it all, we should have the capacity to do it all. The mission must be accomplished. We can't blame failure on an ally not holding up their end of the bargain. - Elric

I've been saying for years that we should be charging for the use of our military. Kuwait should have paid us for kicking Saddam out of Kuwait. We defended Europe while they were using their money to become socialist welfare states.

Although I can find no record of the Kuwaiti's paying anything towards the war effort of the $61 billion dollar cost, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia picked up about $52 billion. If we haven't already, we should be sending Kuwait a bill for the balance. -skeneogden

Don't even try to ask me for a source, but it is my recollection that a Japanese minister was asked if it was true that Japan could have nuclear weapons in 6 months. His reply was something on the order of, "It could take that long."

Dependence on the American Nuclear Umbrella became a hollow asset when Obama became president. The only way to prevent a nuclear war in the Western Pacific is for Japan and South Korea to develop their own capacity for MAD. The Chinese military is not as tightly controlled as the US military is. We can have any kind of "diplomacy" we want with the Chinese government. That doesn't necessarily mean a belligerent Chinese military will care. If they think the US counter threat is hollow they may decide to provoke an "incident".